Kiu Siu - Le Hors-Champ

Released: August 5

Le Hors-Champ is a short and strange little journey that sits somewhere in the realm of ambient music but seems to refuse that label as well. It starts off with the appropriately named "An Opening," a track that is comprised almost wholly of haunting organ tones that oscillate randomly. It sets up an atmosphere that is slightly dark but not overly dramatic or morose, just a little splash of somberness that finds re-occurrence throughout the short runtime. It's these organ-like texture that Kiu Siu has a penchant for throughout, save for one track that comes immediately after the first. 

The second track, "The New Era" seems like it is almost entirely percussive. None of those semi-eerie organ sounds here, just glittering and sparkling bits of percussion. So at first it seemed a little off, but as the album went on, these sparkles slowly integrated with the organs and other weird sounds that were introduced later. Starting at the third track, all these sounds start getting wound together into more complex soundscapes, with this one also introducing bass tones as well. By the time the final track, "Ionospheric Rain," comes, each element has become a part of the track with those organs we heard in the first coming full circle to be combined with the sparkling magic percussion.

It's a rather interesting approach to introduce individual elements in separate tracks only to combine them in later tracks. It gives off this vibe that it's more like a single long-form track rather than 5 separate ones. Of course the sounds are a bit different from track to track, but not so much that the continuity of it feels broken. There's just enough difference to keep things interesting.